Media Contacts:                                                                                                     Kim McDonald (858) 534-7572, or Jim Keeley, HHMI, (301) 215-8858

J. Andrew McCammon, a chemistry professor at the University of California, San Diego, has been selected in a national competition by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as one of 12 leading scientists who will become HHMI investigators in the emerging field of computational biology.

McCammon, who uses sophisticated computer models to examine how protein molecules function so that new enzymes and effective new drugs can be developed, was selected by HHMI as part of a new initiative to pursue growing scientific opportunities at the confluence of biology and computing, in areas such as genomics, cognitive neuroscience and the folding of biomolecules.

The honor was part of an announcement yesterday by the institute naming McCammon, the Joseph E. Mayer professor of theoretical chemistry and a professor of pharmacology at UCSD, and 47 other scientists from 31 institutions across the country as HHMI investigators. These scientists will join 305 other HHMI investigators, who are provided from $500,000 to $1-million annually by the institute for research, graduate training, library resources and other needs.

The institute’s computational-biology initiative, which includes a physicist and an engineer, illustrating the breadth of the fields that now contribute to biomedical advances, will build on recent efforts by scientists to solve important biological problems with new computational tools. McCammon is part of a group of biologists, chemists, medical researchers, computer scientists and engineers working together at UCSD to do that in a comprehensive way at the forefront of a new field called bioinformatics.

"The HHMI award will allow us to intensify our current efforts to move from the molecular to the cellular level of computational structural biology," said McCammon. "It was a real surprise to be selected—there were so many outstanding nominees."

"Andy McCammon has been an inspirational force at UCSD," said Mark H. Thiemens, professor of chemistry and dean of the Division of Natural Sciences at UCSD. "His work here has been simultaneously successful in not only bringing together multiple disciplines, he has also brought to the university the real power of computation. The Howard Hughes investigatorship will be a tremendous opportunity for Andy and this will further elevate his leadership in computational chemistry."

"Andy is an outstanding computational chemist who is at the forefront of the bioinformatics revolution," said Edward A. Dennis, professor and chair of UCSD’s department of chemistry and biochemistry. "He works at the interface of chemistry, pharmacology, biology, and physics and is a true Renaissance scientist who is well equipped to move the bioinformatics field forward. He has earned this recognition and will do great things as a HHMI investigator."

McCammon is the recipient of the George Hitchings Award for Innovative Methods in Drug Design, the Computerworld-Smithsonian Award for Breakthrough Computational Science and this year was elected, with Thomas D. Pollard, an adjunct professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD, to the first class of fellows to the Biophysical Society. A list of current research projects and accomplishments in computational biology and chemistry can be found at the McCammon research group’s web site at http://mccammon.ucsd.edu